Eastern Europe Trip 2017

We started today with another free walking tour around the city. Due to low season, it was a very small group (only 4 of us). The tour started in Spanish square- exactly where the front line of the war took place in the early 90s. Despite the war ending 20 years ago, it felt so recent due to the many buildings that are still half destructed from shell bombs. You can also see bullet holes all over the buildings and areas where buildings used to be. It’s very surreal. Our guide told us that a lot of these buildings have not been fixed due to financial problems and also because there is a law that ensures all reconstructions have to honour the original building design. A lot of these buildings are from the Austrian/Hungarian ruling and therefore were quite fancy and unfortunately too expensive to redo. It’s a shame. A lot of old communist style cheap buildings remain - and there are a few reconstructions going on in the city but the amount of abandoned buildings is insane. Despite this, the old town is still a very pretty place and this very obvious and recent history just adds to its character. Our guide had pictures before the war which he showed us at the same locations that they were taken... looking at these was a good way to get a better idea of the history. Cannot recommend these free city tours enough!

There is a beautiful bridge that goes across the river in the heart of the old town. The bridge is famous for its impressive design that was built in the 1500’s. Unfortunately the original bridge was destroyed during the war. It is now a UNESCO heritage and was reconstructed. There is a diving club that is based on the bridge and as soon as they raise a certain amount of money each day (€30 in summer, €50 in winter) then someone from the club will jump off the bridge. It’s pretty high, 23 meters! We were lucky enough to be there when someone jumped too! Scary to watch. The club also organises training to jump which is a half day of practicing on a training platform before attempting it. Bit too crazy for me.

We spent a lot of time by the bridge, eating ice cream, bird watching and chatting to a local who was telling me all about how it used to be when he was young. We visited a war photo exhibition on the bridge too which was very interesting to see but so heartbreaking. One of the photographers wrote about Mostar: “Though the fighting has stopped, the scars of war, both physically and emotionally, still remain. Mostar is a multi-ethnic city but a divided one; and it will take several generations for this to change.” :(

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The rest of the day we just wandered and as we were back to cheap prices again (yay) we had an absolute feast for lunch. It was sooooo good. We tried fried bread called ‘Peksimet’ and a vegetable and rice dish (a bit like ratatouille), called ‘Duvec’. Delish!

I could easily stay longer here- especially to learn more about its history. A trip to Serbia would be really interesting to compare the different versions of events!Read more